Barnes & Noble is opening four new locations around Chicago this year: see full list of new stores

Chicago’s bookstore scene is getting a major boost. According to NBC Chicago, Barnes & Noble plans to open four new locations across the city of Chicago and its suburbs, signaling a continued revival of brick-and-mortar book shopping and physical media.

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The most buzzed-about opening will land in Oak Park, where Barnes & Noble is moving into a former Borders location. For longtime readers, that detail alone is enough to spark memories of weekend browsing sessions, café pit stops and stacks of paperbacks hauled home under one arm. Borders shuttered more than a decade ago, so bringing a bookstore back to that exact space feels like a small but meaningful reset.

Inside Chicago proper, the company is also planning a large new store in the Loop, taking over a former Old Navy space at 150 N. State St. At roughly 30,000 square feet, it’s expected to be one of the biggest Barnes & Noble locations in the region, which is a notable vote of confidence in downtown retail at a time when many major chains have scaled back or moved online. A bookstore of that size suggests the kind of location that rewards not just shopping but browsing and rediscovering the joy of getting lost in the shelves.

Hyde Park is also getting a new Barnes & Noble at 1524 E. 55th St. While independent bookstores remain central to Hyde Park’s identity, the new store is expected to offer a wide selection along with a café, making it as much a casual gathering spot as a retail destination.

The fourth location isn’t new, but it is a refresh. Barnes & Noble is relocating its Skokie store within Westfield Old Orchard mall, updating the space and keeping the suburban outpost firmly in place for north-side and North Shore readers.

Taken together, the four openings reflect a broader shift in Barnes & Noble’s strategy. After years of store closures nationwide, the company has been steadily reopening locations, betting on curated selections and locally minded management rather than one-size-fits-all megastores. For Chicago, that means more places to browse physical books at a moment when many people are rediscovering the pleasure of unplugging. And that sounds like a resolution worth pursuing.

Here is a list of the upcoming locations:

Loop: 150 N. State St.
Hyde Park: 1524 E. 55th St. 
Oak Park: 1144 W. Lake Street
Westfield Old Orchard mall in Skokie: 4905 Old Orchard Center